The Grays by Whitley Strieber Page A

take a breath, and she was most certainly not ready to return to his dark, claustrophobic hole.
    Throwing off the covers, she went over and typed her password. Code came up, four lines, which she sight read. “They’ve got a virus,” she muttered,striving not to reveal to him her true horror. The message communicated extreme urgency. Something was wrong.
Real
wrong.
    “Let somebody else fix it.”
    “I have to go,” she said, going to her closet and starting to dress.
    “Miss Indispensable.”
    “Unfortunately.” Zipping her jeans, she went over and kissed him. “I’ll be back, love,” she said.
    He drew her toward the bed. Briefly, she sat down. They kissed. She looked into his eyes. She sighed. “You know the rules.” And she realized how much she hated what she did—how deeply, profoundly twisted it felt . . . but she loved the perks, and, quite frankly, she was also sort of okay with Adam. The facility was a hole, but at the bottom of that hole was a most extraordinary being.
    The thought that Adam might not be well crossed her mind. That made her hurry even more. She threw on a sky-blue cashmere sweater and her black jacket. After a perfunctory brush of her hair, she strode across her large living room and out the door.
    She did not look back toward Ted. When she returned, he might well be gone. Fine, she’d rustle up another roll in the hay, maybe a civilian this time.
    She had a lot for a girl of twenty-six. But she did a lot. As far as anybody knew, there was only one person on this earth who could do what she did. No doubt there were others, but how to find them? The Air Force had never been able to succeed at that, which was fine by her, since it meant that she could name her price, which had been promotion to full colonel. So now Mike’s orders were requests . . . but this was one she would certainly meet.
    In the elevator, she turned her mind to her work. What could be wrong? She wished the elevator would go faster. She arrived in the condo’s garage, strode to her car, and sped off to the facility. It wasn’t far. She couldn’t live far from Adam.
    She turned two corners onto Hamilton, and made her way down the tree-shaded street to the old house.
    Wilkes met her at the door, which was unusual in the extreme. “A glow-boy kiped a newbie in the forbidden zone and there were civilian witnesses,” he said all in one breath. “I want you to query Adam on it.”
    “Why?”
    “Because it’s so extremely unusual, obviously.”
    “You understand, they don’t have the concept of treaty. They don’t knowwhat that is. And they futz with newbies all the time. You just don’t see them do it, because they stay in the approved zones.”
    “You know this?”
    “What if I told you that they’re a rambunctious, fun-loving bunch of extremely brilliant but weird people? How would that sit?”
    “First, they are not people. Second, they are not only extremely brilliant, they are extremely sinister and they have no emotions.”
    “Adam showed grief when Dad got killed.”
    “He was faking it.”
    “Plus, he—I don’t know how to put it, it’s not human emotion, not at all, but he does care about me.”
    “You’re projecting. End of story. Now, let’s go down. We have work to do.” As they waited for the elevator, he added, “We have a scramble running on the glowboy, incidentally.”
    “Oh, great, how do I explain that?”
    “Communicate that it’s a friendly warning. The civilians are liable to have cameras. There could be a security breach that’s beyond our control.”
    “
Wunderbar
.” She was annoyed when Wilkes got into the elevator with her. She did not like him around when she and Adam were together.
    A few moments later, the doors opened onto the control room and, beyond it, the huge door that sealed Adam’s space.
    As Lauren stripped, Andy began opening a fresh prep kit. She dropped her sweater to the floor and rubbed her temples. “So I need to find out why this triad is